Mrs Rochester [Paperback]

Rarely do I throw a book away from me in disgust - but this one got hurled across the landing with great passion. "Is it really that bad?" you ask. Yes, yes it is. It's absolutely DREADFUL.

The Rochesters have lived their Happily Ever Afters at Ferndean for the past decade when Mr. Rochester decides to rebuild Thornfield Hall, so they can move there instead. Immediately, Jane turns into Mrs. Angst because she never liked the place (wrong) and it brings back sooo many dreadful memories (wrong again), and angst angst angst, she doesn't want to go but obliges her darling husband - who is gone from most of the novel, and whenever he shows up, he's a cold and emotionally distant brute. There's only about one scene in the book where he's anywhere NEAR what he realistically should be like as the loving husband of his darling soul mate. And then he buggers off again without a word to say where he's going!

Hilary Bailey hasn't got a clue as to the personalities of ANY of the characters. Jane angsty and frightened of Mrs. Poole? St. John warm and, well, HUMAN? Grace Poole ... let's not even go there. And the identity of the mysterious French lady and the reason she's in Hay ... good gods. It's so painfully clashing with the original that you truly despair.

Adèle? OH THE HUMANITY! For quite some time, I thought this would go the same way "The French Dancer's Bastard: The Story of Adele from Jane Eyre" did, because the plots were very similar in parts. Adèle (in both books) is longing for her maman and wants her to come back and marry Mr. Rochester so they can be a proper family. (In the original, Adèle is told that Céline has "gone to the Holy Virgin", so she holds no such delusions.) This veers so far off course with Adèle it's unbelievable. If you like the idea of the true daughter of Paris being turned into a psychopath, go ahead and indulge yourself, be my guest. If you don't, save your money, this book isn't worth it. I'm actually offended on Adèle's behalf, despite her being fictional!

The writing as such isn't bad, but Hilary Bailey has got the characters completely wrong - ALL of them - and the story is so implausible and insane that "Mrs. Rochester" should make any "Jane Eyre" purist want to cry. I felt physical pain reading the bloody thing, and hurling it across the landing didn't quite make up for it.

As a book, fair enough, it's alright, I suppose. As a "Jane Eyre" sequel, let alone "THE" sequel? Hell no. The whole "the sequel to" bugs me. THE sequel? For that, it would have to be written by Charlotte Brontë, or at least, it would need to fit in as a logical extension of the original, and it doesn't. It clashes with it terribly, nauseatingly, offensively and a bunch of other similar adverbs you might care to throw in there. It's just WRONG. It would make Charlotte Brontë cry with despair over how her darling characters were treated.

Hilary Bailey, I'm afraid you deserve to be locked in the Red Room for life, with only the ghost of Uncle Reed to keep you company.

I checked this book out of the public library. Soooo glad I did not buy it. Thornfield is made out to be a house of horrors. In Jane Eyre she exclaimed that she loved Thornfield. Adele turns out to be not what Jane's last words were about Adele. Rochester is not portrayed as the man who in Jane Eyre was repentent, but instead still keeps secrets. Until something is written more worthy of Charlotte Bronte's characters, I will just stick with the original.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see both reviews  1.5 out of 5 stars